by Soo-Inn Tan | Mar 28, 2011 | 2011, Articles, Death & Grief, Life Issues
Can we call those who are dead in Christ back to life this side of heaven? Recently Bernice and I went to hospital to be with a church member whose husband had died suddenly. We were in a room with the body of our friend. His widow was there together with two other...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Jan 26, 2011 | 2011, Articles, Death & Grief, Life Issues
People die every day. Including friends. But when you read about the death of a friend, your first reaction is usually one of disbelief. Last Friday I read a poem posted on Facebook that looked like a eulogy for a friend. If I had been an objective reader I wouldn’t...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Dec 20, 2010 | 2010, Articles, Death & Grief, Life Issues
This is going to be a tough Christmas for some of my friends. These are friends that lost their spouses sometime this year. This will be the first Christmas without their spouses. It will be rough. . . . almost all survivors experience anniversary reactions. The first...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Apr 29, 2010 | 2010, Articles, Death & Grief, Life Issues
My Bible reading this morning (April 28) was the account of the death and raising of Lazarus from John 11: 1-44. What has always struck me about this passage is that Jesus purposely delayed going to see His sick friend so that Lazarus would die. Jesus allowed His...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Apr 2, 2010 | 2010, Articles, Death & Grief, Jesus, Jesus' Death, Life Issues
It’s funny the things you remember. The first time I went up close and personal to a dead body was in 1968, when I was in Form (Secondary) Two. My grandma (dad’s mum) had died and all her children and grandchildren had to help put on her funeral clothes. I...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Nov 9, 2009 | 2009, Afterlife, Articles, Death & Grief, Life Issues
What happens after death? Nothing, according to some. Death is the universal anticlimax to life. So we should “seize the day” or “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32 NRSV).” Then there are those who, like the ancient...